Typeface for Rio’s Olympic Games

The typeface for Rio’s 2016 Olympic Games was announced recently in Brazil, and it shows clear signs of brazilian-ness, or at very least cariocaness, in my opinion. The flowing brush-like curves reminiscent of waves, mountains and other curvy beauties of Rio.  See the official announcement here.  The design was a collaboration between brazilian designers working with the Swiss foundry  Dalton Maag.

This typeface reinforces my un-scientific conclusion that recent typeface design appears to be moving towards more playful, serif-y / curly-ish / flowing designs, and away from the hardlined sans-serif old modernist standards. The drawback in my opinion is that these interesting typefaces usually have a limited shelf-life. After a few years one gets sick of them. But it’s fun.